All posts in category Ether

‘Beginner’s mind’ is a term used a lot in meditation practices, often in Zen practices, which describes a state of mindfulness which brings us to the present moment and away from all the various thoughts that enter and leave the mind every second of every day. If you sit, only for five minutes in meditation and try to bring your focus entirely to one thing, e.g. the sensations created on the nostrils by the breath as you inhale and exhale, you will find just how much the mind tends to wander and then follow each and every train of random though that comes up. With beginner’s mind, we constantly come back to the present moment, letting go of attachments to those various thoughts and the feelings and emotions they bring up. We don’t become weighed down by judgements of ourselves and of others, running critiques and criticism from us or from others towards us. We don’t replay a hurtful comment directed our way that happened two years ago. Instead, we see these thoughts for what they, seeing to the truth behind them. We are aware that these thoughts are the nature of the mind and form no attachment to them, instead, we constantly come back to the present moment, living in the moment – the timeless state. It is a state that has to be experienced as words can only serve to box it into a concept when in fact it is beyond the boundary of words.

Neptune is a planet and an energy that gives the ability to have incredible faith and belief in people. It is the opposite of cynicism, which boxes us into pre-defined ideas. The essence of Neptune can see the best in people and situations and this ability is continuous even if the other person or situation does not always live up to the Neptunian ideal – Neptune will continue to see the best in the other. Neptune tends not to get caught up or stuck in the surface appearance of people or situations, it can get beyond that and straight to the soul. Neptune has no barriers, no boundaries as it merges with everything it touches, become one with it. In fact, Neptune is already one with everything and everyone, in a sense, the same as the element of ether. Ether connects all the other elements together, the air molecules, the fire, water and earth molecules. It is everywhere all the time but you cannot contain it. Rather than thinking and using the logic, it just is and it just knows what is. In this sense, the energy is very much like beginner’s mind which just is, ever present in the moment, thoroughly aware and awake with the universal wisdom that comes from being present and connected with all that is around us. This is a state that transcends time, as time is formed from thoughts of past and future and keeps us limited. The present, the ether, the state of Neptune is timeless and infinite, all encompassing and unattached. It is a state we constantly come back to through meditation experiences, coming back to beginner’s mind and living each moment as new, where incredible lightness and joy can be found.

A quote by Shunryu Suzuki, “You do not meditate to gain enlightenment, you meditate because you are enlightened”. With Neptune, the object is already there but maybe not immediately visible to the everyday eye, we have to tune in, become one with the Neptunian state, to percieve it. We are already enlightened, but need to be still, that is, still the unruly thoughts that we attach to, in order to percieve our divine natures. Enlightenment is all around us, we just need to ‘see’ it with beginner’e eyes.